


you're on my mind

by thedevilssmile



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Kind of Slowburn, Memory Loss, lots of feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27563764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilssmile/pseuds/thedevilssmile
Summary: “She thinks you’re her girlfriend.”Okay - that’s - that’s unexpected. But fine. She’s fine. Hope’s not her girlfriend, she’s not Hope’s girlfriend and someone will tell her that and it will be fine, and soon enough, Hope will remember that she’s in love with Landon. She’ll work on bringing him back to life and out of his coma. Magic can be weird. Weird stuff happens.“Well, did someone tell her I’m not?”The nervous glances are back.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 76
Kudos: 616





	1. Chapter 1

It takes Hope ten days to wake up, and Josie spends them almost entirely by her side, wracked with guilt. She’s the one who played around with her dark magic, she’s the one who killed Lizzie, and she’s the one who went so far off the tracks that Hope had to walk into her mind. 

And now, she’s not waking up. They bring her to the infirmary, and Josie watches her, stretched out on one of the beds. She looks peaceful. Not like a girl who has to save the world, time and time again, not like the person who keeps rescuing all of them. Just a girl, asleep. 

The story in her mind had been all wrong. Hope should have been the fairytale princess. She certainly has the looks for it. She’d be Snow White in this story, now, pale skin, and red lips, and blissfully asleep, and maybe, perhaps, possibly, Josie has spent a little too much time thinking about this.

Her crush on Hope has been safely pushed away, but these days, it seems to be resurfacing with a vengeance.

Josie gets used to being in the infirmary. Sun streams in through the bright, open windows and she can avoid the rest of the school. Students flinch when she walks down the halls and there are whispers about her in the hallways. 

This is better, keeping an eye on Hope, making sure she’s safe.

Emma and Dad team up on her to insist that she at least go into the hall to eat something proper once a day, even if Lizzie keeps sneaking her sweets, and that’s why she’s not there when Hope wakes up. 

She’s on her way back when they stop her, all three of them, standing in a straight line and blocking her from going further. She panics, which really is absolutely the logical reaction to this situation. 

“What’s wrong? Is it Hope? What happened?”

Lizzie’s the one who speaks first. “Sleeping Beauty is fine. She’s awake.”

Josie’s still deciding whether she wants to rush into the infirmary or run as far away from it as possible. Both options seem good. Especially the second one. Hope probably doesn’t want to see her, in any case. Josie’s the reason she’s been knocked out for ten days. That's not even scratching the surface of all the horrible things Josie has done, actually.  


Emma’s voice pulls her out of her thoughts. “There’s just an issue.”

“An issue?” She watches the nervous glances between her dad and Emma. This doesn’t bode for anything good. Lizzie rolls her eyes. 

“She thinks you’re her girlfriend.”

Okay - that’s - that’s unexpected. But fine. She’s fine. Hope’s not her girlfriend, she’s not Hope’s girlfriend and someone will tell her that and it will be fine, and soon enough, Hope will remember that she’s in love with Landon. She’ll work on bringing him back to life and out of his coma. Magic can be weird. Weird stuff happens. 

“Well, did someone tell her I’m not?”

The nervous glances are back. 

“Well, sweetheart,” Emma’s definitely using her therapist voice, “this kind of memory shift after a stressful time period, there’s a certain vulnerability and we really don’t want to - if you didn’t mind, it should only be a minimal amount of time-”

“They’re scared that telling Hope the truth is going to break her brain, so we need you play along.”

“Lizzie,” Dad chides; Lizzie remains unperturbed. 

“Break her brain?”

Emma clears her throat. “With this kind of magical interaction, Hope’s mind was obviously vulnerable. She should have woken up again straight away. Now, her brain must have made some kind of connection to you to make this easier for her.”

Josie doesn’t say anything, wouldn’t even know what to say. 

“It shouldn’t be for long,” Emma adds. “I’ll start on research straight away. We’ll find a spell that fixes it, Josie, and even if we don’t, she should be back to normal in a day or two. I’ve read about this happening before.”

“I’ll do it,” Josie says, “of course.” Anything to help Hope. 

She’s maybe panicking. On the inside. Quietly. Dating? Hope? She can’t even - how is she even going to pull this off - and besides - and this is going to go so wrong. 

This is going to be bad. So bad. Really bad. The worst. “Why don’t you two warn the rest of the students so they don’t accidentally spill,” Lizzie interrupts, “Josie and I have this handled.”

“We do?”

“Come on, Ric,” Emma says, and Josie watches them walk away and turns to her sister. “I can’t do this.”

“Pretending to have a crush on Hope can’t possibly be much of a stretch, sister dearest.”

Josie rolls her eyes and paces through the hallway. One step. Two. Three. “It’s not pretending to have a crush on her; it’s pretending to date her.”

Lizzie looks like she’s trying not to laugh at Josie’s predicament. “It’ll be a day or two. Then you can both be absolutely embarrassed about it and avoid each other for two weeks straight.” 

“I’m not - we’re not -,” she stutters. 

Lizzie smiles faintly. “You’re going to be fine. She seems to be remembering everything else just fine, so she’s just worried about the Merge and wants to see you.”

She spends the next five minutes freaking out despite Lizzie’s reassurances, because everything about this feels messy and complicated. Like a horrible, bad, no-good idea. Their lives are never without trouble, but this is different. She’d prefer a monster, honestly. 

“Go away,” she tells Lizzie once they’ve reached the door. 

“You’re no fun,” her twin complains.   


“Absolutely not.” Lizzie rolls her eyes, but disappears down the hallway. “You’re depriving me of my entertainment,” she calls out. Then she’s gone and it’s just Josie, standing alone in the empty hallway. 

She pushes the door open carefully, her heart beating far too fast. Hopefully Hope won’t pick up on that. Hope’s sitting up in bed, and she turns to look at Josie. The smile that instantly appears on Hope’s face makes her feel all kinds of things. “Hi babe,” she says. 

Yeah, Josie is screwed. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“Hi you,” she says, hoping her voice sounds more even than she feels. Hope’s smile grows even brighter as she gestures for Josie to come closer.

She crosses the room with careful, cautious steps. She attempts to sit down on the chair next to Hope’s bed, the one she’s spent the last few days in. That plan is foiled when Hope reaches for her, tugs and pulls with gentle movements. Josie finds herself on the bed, next to Hope. 

Far too close to Hope. 

Hope, who is still smiling at her, gentle and warm. She’s not used to this version of her. Hope is always, even at the best of times, impenetrable, distant, careful. Not cold, not really. Just cautious. Walls and boundaries. 

Hope doesn’t normally intertwine their fingers and say, “I missed you.”

In fact, Josie is very certain that she has never done that. 

Josie does her best not to blush. She’s failing. Splendidly failing.

Once all of this is over, she’ll just have to convince Hope that she’s a really great actress. That her heart doesn’t feel like beating out of her chest with the way Hope is looking at her. That she just went along with this charade in order to protect Hope from kind of magical mind implosion. 

Hope’s still looking at her, pretty blue eyes, and Josie remembers that she should reply something. Preferably words. 

“I was right here,” she manages. 

“Lizzie mentioned that,” Hope says, and her thumb is now tracing circles on Josie’s skin. The motion sends shivers up and down Josie’s spine. “She also said that you hadn’t wanted to deal with the other students.”

Of course Lizzie would have mentioned that. Knowing her sister, an entire rundown of any and all gossip while Hope had been in a coma took less than five minutes. 

Josie’s been refusing to talk about that. She’d like to keep that up, thank you very much, even if her interfering twin has deigned it a bad idea. Even if Hope’s gentle smile makes Josie want to spill all her secrets. Which she won’t do. Time for plan B. 

If Hope thinks Josie’s her girlfriend anyway, she might as well try flirting her way out of trouble. “Maybe I just wanted to be with my favorite person.” It’s not even a lie. 

Hope smiles at Josie’s answer. A hint of color flushes her cheeks. For a moment, it seems like Josie’s not the only one affected. Hope reaches up, brushes a strand of hair behind Josie’s ear. Her eyes are warm and knowing, as if she’s all too aware that Josie is attempting to distract her and all too willing to let her. “Well, I’m glad you were here,” she says, “and that you came back.”

The fragile control Josie has been holding onto for the last days is shattering to pieces. Five minutes with Hope and every ounce of calm and self control she had assembled is flying out the window. 

“Thank you for getting me back,” she whispers. Her voice sounds more broken than she’d like to admit, the syllables slowly dropping from her lips. 

Hope notices, of course. Has she always been this insightful? Has it just been hidden behind her carefully built walls? It makes Josie feels like she’s being taken apart, Hope’s gaze fully focused on her. 

Hope raises Josie’s hand, the one she’s still holding, and presses a kiss to every knuckle. Her lips feel soft. Josie’s breath catches in her throat. “You did all the hard work,” Hope says, 

Josie had, when she was younger, sometimes imagined what it would be like to date Hope Mikaelson. But she had never imagined this.

It feels too good to be true. 

Which it is, she reminds herself. 

None of this is real. 

She needs to write that down somewhere, because she’s forgetting it more and more with every passing second. This stupid crush is spiralling out of control at lightning-speed, but it’s built on a web of deceit.

The truth is that Hope has an epic love, who’s going to return from the dead at some point. 

The truth is that Josie’s crush on Hope has always been utterly one-sided. 

The truth is that Hope needs her to be a good friend and nothing else. 

Right now, that’s what she has to focus on. “Strong and good,” Hope adds, “I knew you could do it.” Hope isn’t exactly making this any easier.

“I almost killed you,” Josie reminds both of them. 

Hope shrugs. “I would have come back.” She winks exaggeratedly. “Like a bad penny.” 

Hope’s teasing, for whatever reason, alleviates some of the guilt that has been her constant companion since the Dark Josie Debacle. (Lizzie picked the name.)

“Besides, almost is the key word here,” Hope adds and Josie hums noncommittally. The image of Hope, elevated in the air, won’t be leaving her anytime soon. 

Hope senses her discomfort, apparently, and asks about other things, Lizzie, the school, new Malivore monsters. It feels almost normal, except they’re still holding hands and Josie’s heart still accelerates every time she meets Hope’s eyes. 

Except Hope thinks they’re dating and Josie feels like she’s caught up in a lie that will shatter her to pieces. She inhales sharply, doing her best to remember the issue at hand. Hope’s mind is in danger and for once, she deserves someone to stand up for her and have her back. After all, Hope’s random amnesia only happened because she saved Josie from herself. 

The least Josie can do is play along until they have a solution. 

Which will be fast. 

Which has to be fast, because Josie is not sure how long she can keep this up for without doing something very stupid. 

She’s almost grateful when Hope doses off, her eyes falling slowly shut. There’s a smile on her face. It has Josie wondering what she might be thinking about. They’re still so close, fingers intertwined, almost no space between them and it makes Josie feel breathless. 

WIth careful movements, she untangles her hand from Hope’s. Reluctantly, she gets to her feet. The temptation to stay is almost too much, but they have to fix this. She needs to find Emma and Lizzie. Hopefully, by now, they’re a little closer to a solution. Or a lot closer. A lot closer would be great, actually. 

She gets up, looking around the room. 

There’s a cactus on the table next to Hope. Josie brought it there a few days ago. It’s prickly. Josie thought Hope might like it, but now, it seems like an unfitting choice. 

She makes it out of the infirmary before collapsing against the closed door, sinking to the ground. This is going to end horribly.


	3. Chapter 3

She finds Emma and Lizzie pouring over the books in Dad’s office. He’s on the phone in the corner, obviously arguing with someone in hushed tones. 

“Did you fix it yet?” 

They haven’t, of course. It’s been less than an hour. 

She knows that. But a girl can hope. 

Emma sighs and gets to her feet. “Josie, sweetie,” this is not going to be good, “do you remember when Raf lost his memory about what happened to Landon for a bit?”

“Yes,” she begins. The hesitation she feels must be apparent. 

“Something similar is going on with Hope. Werewolves can slip between their two states of being, wolf and human. Normally this shift only occurs during the full moon. But when a traumatic event happens, as it did to Raf, or when a supernatural can shift more or less at will, like the Crescent wolves, the line is more blurry.”

“So Hope’s wolf did this?”

Emma nods. Her fingernails are tapping out a nervous rhythm against the desk. One-two. One-two. “Yes. For whatever reason, her wolf decided it would be safer to wake up while thinking she was dating you.”

Safer. Josie can handle safer. Safer doesn’t sound too dangerous. Maybe Hope’s wolf thought that this would be the best way to keep an eye on dark Josie. That makes sense. That sounds like Hope. It’s much more realistic than Hope actually having feelings - she needs to stop this train of thought. 

“This is normal, then? For wolves?”

The speed of the tapping increases as Emma clears her throat. She looks distinctly uncomfortable. “Well, not quite,” she sends an obviously helpless glance in Lizzie’s direction. 

“Normally, there’s more of an amnesiac than an adaptive element to it.”

“What does that even mean?”

Lizzie takes pity on Emma. “It means that normal freaky would be Hope forgetting about Malivore or that her parents died or something. Hope freaky is Hope’s wolf deciding to manifest a whole love life.”

“But we can fix this? There’s a spell or something?”

“We’ve contacted Hope’s aunts and they’ve agreed to reach out to the Crescent Wolf Pack. They may have experience with this and they’ll be here as soon as they know more.”

“Hope’s family is coming here?”

Hope’s family. Including the super powerful witch Josie knocked out and left lying on the floor. Who’ll surely be pleased to know that Hope’s trip into dark Josie’s mind is the reason she created an alternative reality. Yes, this is great. Absolutely what she needed today. 

Emma nods. “We’ll keep looking for a solution until then. But this kind of magic requires some finesse. We don’t want to make any mistakes.”

Josie understands very well what isn’t being sad. “But you need me to keep pretending.”

The counsellor’s expression softens. “We’ll research with all hands on deck, Josie. I’m sure we’ll have a solution before you know it.”

“What about the other students? Someone is bound to tip Hope off.” Maybe they should just tell her. Or maybe Josie can just run away to Paris for a bit. 

Lizzie throws her feet up onto the nearest chair. From the corner, Dad starts frantically waving his hands at her. He’s much too fond of his furniture. “I’ll handle it. We’ll tell the squad the truth and I’ll spread a few versions of you and Hope dating. People will be too busy to figure out which part of the gossip is true to doubt if it’s actually happening.” She smiles. “It’ll be gossip galore.”

Josie rubs her fingertips against her temples. “Fine.” It’s not like she has a better idea. She just has a headache from hell. 

“Hope’s aunt said that we didn’t have to worry too much about the details. I agree. Her mind chose this reality, she probably has some subconscious awareness that it’s not quite right. She won’t be nitpicking any discrepancies.”

It’s a small relief. At least it means a little less pressure. 

She exhales slowly. Lizzie sends her a look. “Go and sleep. You’ve been up for almost a week. We’ll keep the research going, but you need to be rested if you’re going to fake a relationship.”

“I’m fine. I can help.”

Lizzie glares. “Do not make me be the responsible one.”

She doesn’t quite know her where her feet lead her until she’s there and is suddenly glad that the hallway is empty. At least this way, no one can see her blush. She pushes the door open. She shouldn’t, but she can’t quite stop herself. The room’s been untouched for the last week, absolutely pristine. 

The soft smell of vanilla and strawberries lingers and the bed looks much too inviting. Hope wouldn’t mind, Josie knows. 

She can just sit down for a moment. Her limbs feel heavy and she’s so damn tired with the stress of the last days falling off from her. Walking all the way back to her own room seems like the worst idea. 

When she wakes up, it’s to the sound of quiet laughter. Josie blinks slowly, forcing her eyes open. Hope’s standing in the doorway, a smile on her face. “Hi sweetheart,” she says, “this is definitely a pleasant surprise.”

Josie sits up. She knows her cheeks must be scarlet. “You’re supposed to be in the infirmary.”

Hope crosses the room with a smile on her face. “I checked myself out.”

Worry surges inside Josie. “Are you okay? Shouldn’t you stay for observation or something?”

“If I suddenly end up in another coma, I will immediately go back,” Hope teases.

“I fell asleep,” Josie blurts out, which is blatantly obvious. She needs to stop being this flustered around Hope. “Sorry for invading your room.”

Hope plops down next to her on the bed. She brushes a strand of hair behind Josie’s ear. Her heartbeat accelerates, much, much too fast. She knows Hope can hear it. “You know I don’t mind. Besides, this was much easier than coming to look for you.”

“You were looking for me?”

Hope swings her feet up on the bed. Josie scoots over. She doesn’t get up. Getting up and going back to her own room would be the smart course of action, but Hope is warm and Josie has missed her. 

“Lizzie assured me that there were no immediate monsters on my to-do list, so I was going to suggest a movie night?”

A movie night. Blankets and cuddling and movies. Sure. Josie can survive that. Maybe. Somehow. "Sounds like fun."


End file.
